CHARLES, was born at Paris on the 12th of January 1628, and studied at the college of Beauvais, where he distinguished himself in scholastic disputation, and in making verses. Having completed his studies, he was admitted as advocate; but Colbert soon deprived him of his services, and, in the year 1664, appointed him first commissary for the superintendence of royal buildings. The Academy of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, and that of Sciences, were founded on memoirs drawn up by Charles Perrault, who had now become comptroller-general of buildings; and he was admitted into the French Academy in 1671, in the room of the Bishop of Léon. But the impracticable character of Colbert having at length wearied out his patience, he retired from his public situation, and, devoting himself to literature, produced his poem entitled Siècle de Louis XIV., which appeared in 1687, and involved him in a war with the learned, by reason of his exalting the modern in comparison with the ancient authors. He defended himself, however, in the Parallèle des Anciens et Modernes, which appeared at Paris in 1688, and excited the antagonism of Boileau in his Réflexions sur Longin. In addition to the works just mentioned, Charles Perrault wrote a considerable number of poetical pieces now all but forgotten. Perrault died at Paris on the 16th of May 1703. His son PERRAULT D'ARMACOURT was the author of the well-known Contes de Fées, which contain the nursery classics of "Cinderella," &c.

Claude, a celebrated architect, the brother of Charles, was born at Paris in the year 1613. His father, an advocate of the Parliament, caused him to study medicine, anatomy, and the mathematics; and he even took the degree of Doctor of Physic in the faculty of Paris. But Colbert having advised him to undertake a translation of Vitruvius, the studies in which he found it necessary to engage in order to understand that writer inspired him with a decided taste for architecture, and gave a new direction to his pursuits. When the Academy of Sciences was established in 1666, Perrault was admitted a member of this body, and was employed to furnish designs and building-plans for the Observatory. But this edifice, which, with all its merits, is in a heavy style, was far from giving any indication of the talents which Perrault afterwards displayed. His grand work is the palace of the Louvre, the façade of which was designed by him, and is certainly one of the noblest monuments of architecture in France. The building had been commenced, and even part of the façade raised, according to the designs of Lavau. But Colbert, dissatisfied with these, appealed to the genius of other architects; and Perrault produced a design so superior to those of his competitors that it obtained a decided preference. Perrault furnished designs for other works, particularly the triumphal arch erected at the extremity of the Rue Saint-Antoine, the foundation-stone of which was laid on the 6th of August 1670; and in all his works he displayed that superiority of genius which was first exhibited in his translation of Vitruvius, particularly in the plates with which it was enriched, and which have ever been considered as masterpieces of their kind. The first edition of this work appeared in 1673, and the second in 1684, in 1 vol. fol.; after which the translator published an abridgment in 1 vol. 12mo; and a supplement, entitled Ordonnances des Cinq Espèces de Colonnes selon la Méthode des Anciens, in 1 vol. fol. Of his other productions the principal are—Essais de Physique, 1680–8, 2 vols. 4to, and 4 vols. 12mo; Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire Naturelle des Animaux, Paris, 1671–6, in folio; Recueil d'un grand Nombre des Machines de son Invention, Paris, 1700, in 1 vol. 4to. Claude Perrault assisted his brother Charles in preparing the memoirs relating to the establishment of the Academy of Sciences, and that of painting and sculpture, and took a warm interest in the success of that institution. He died at Paris on the 9th of October 1688, in consequence, it is believed, of having wounded himself whilst dissecting, in the Jardin du Roi, a camel which had died of some contagious disease.